A flaw in the Apple Watch leaves it absurdly vulnerable to thieves

The Apple Watch: Be careful who sees you wearing it.Chris McGrath/Getty Images

A lack of security features in the Apple Watch has left the device extremely vulnerable to thieves, iDownloadBlog has found.

The iPhone and other modern smartphones come with "kill switches" and security features that can stop potential thieves from using the device — essentially rendering it useless if stolen. Since their introduction, these features have massively disincentivised smartphone theft, as thieves learn it will be difficult to sell the devices.

But Apple's new smartwatch has no such built-in measures — and it's easy to reset the wearable and pair it with a new iPhone.

IDownloadBlog put together a video showing the process. In less than a minute, without needing to enter a password, anyone can reset the Apple Watch to factory settings and pair it with a different iPhone, ready to use. This will not allow access to the original owner's data — but most user information tends to be stored on iPhones anyway.

Additionally, the Apple Watch has no GPS hardware — it relies on the GPS tracker in the iPhone. This means, unlike the iPhone, you cannot track its whereabouts if it is stolen.

Here's how the vulnerability works. First, you long-press the power button on the right to bring up the shutdown settings.